I've Never Imagined the World Before
by sweet-and-simple
Summary: Sam was raised this way.  Raised to be a slave for Lucifer.  Dean is the only one who knows what freedom is like.  Lucifer/Sam Gabriel/Sam Michael/Dean Castiel/Dean Lucifer/Michael


Sam doesn't remember the slave trader Azazel, or his house burning down. He doesn't remember his mom and dad dying. He was only six months old.

But Dean remembers. He was four when it all happened, and he carries that hopelessness and hatred and despair with him. He hates their owners, though Sam can't figure out why, and he hates the place they live, the rules they have to live under, and the collars they have to wear.

Sam was raised for this, though. It's all he knows, these walls and his master and this heavy, ornate collar. He doesn't remember his mother's love or his dad's protective hands. He doesn't remember having a happy older brother.

He has this place. He has Lucifer. And he has this pretty collar that's made of the same thing as angel-blades and has jewels on it. Dean is there too, but they keep them apart most days. Dean stays with Michael in their wing of the mansion. He has a pretty collar too. Except it doesn't have jewels on it. It has spikes.

Sometimes, when Sam does see him and Michael together, he watches the archangel beat Dean down with just the toe of his foot and call him "Dog". Sam doesn't know why that's a bad thing.

So he calls Dean "Dog" too the next time he sees him. He will never forget the look of utter betrayal in his big brother's expression, or how low and trembling his voice was when he told Sam to never call him that again.

Sam was raised here, like this. A pet to Lucifer, the Fallen archangel. He doesn't know how to swim, how to read, how to function outside of Lucifer's wants and needs. He wasn't raised to know everything. He wasn't raised to be curious. He was raised to be a good boy.

And he is. He's good in anything Lucifer wants him to do. If Lucifer wants him to pleasure him in bed, he does that too, and frequently at that. Every nine-year old in the world does this sort of thing for the people they love, right? Sam wouldn't know, he's the only nine-year old he's ever met. The one time he asks Dean, his big brother cried.

Sam doesn't put much thought into it, though. He's a good boy, after all.

He isn't supposed to question his master.

~::~

Dean is pacing the room. He does that whenever he's pushed into their meeting room. Dean calls it a cage but Sam doesn't understand that. There's no way out of a cage, right? There's a door right there and a really big window across from it that they can see out of, so it's not like they're stuck.

He ignores how Dean proves him wrong time and time again by picking up anything he possibly can and shattering it against the unbreakable glass. He tries the door again and again and it never opens until one of the archangels, either Dean's or his master, come to separate them again.

"Can't you just be happy that we're here? Together?" And Sam smiles, hoping that Dean can see how glad he is and maybe feel the same way.

Dean scowls instead. There's a bruise at the corner of his lips that makes him wince when he does so. "No! Sammy, we don't _belong_ here. This isn't _humane_, it's slavery!"

He tilts his head, confused. He isn't sure how Dean knows all that. He was only four when they were brought here, right? So why is he still fighting? But Sam doesn't ask. He doesn't know how to ask "why", he never has.

His brother starts bashing his fists against the wall and they're bloody long before he's done and Sam even thinks that a few knuckles are tragically out of place. His brother snarls, spins around, and pulls at his collar like he sometimes does when he's really angry.

Sam doesn't know how to respect anyone that isn't Lucifer. So he doesn't keep his mouth shut, though he knows his words are going to hurt his big brother. "Did Michael share you again last night?" He tilts his head and smiles. He wishes Lucifer would share him sometimes. Lucifer is the only one who ever touches him and Sam just wants… just wants a little _more_. But no one gives a little because they know Lucifer will kill them.

Dean is officially the only other person than Lucifer who has ever touched Sam in his entire lifetime. The only one alive, that is. And he doesn't even do it anymore because… because… Sam doesn't know. One day, Dean hugged him, and then Lucifer wouldn't let them see each other again for nearly two years.

His big brother makes these small wheezing sounds like he's out of breath and wants to scream at the same time. He looks at Sam and there is something really broken there because he suddenly looks away and everything about him is defeated. "I don't want to be here anymore, Sammy."

"It's Sam." He actually frowns at his big brother. "Only Master can call me Sammy."

Dean's eyes slide shut. "You're not even Sam anymore."

He doesn't get that. His name's Sam, isn't it? Then he's Sam. He can't just _stop_ being Sam.

When Michael comes to pick up Dean, his big brother doesn't even fight him. It's so strange that Sam just watches him go without even realizing what he's seeing.

He thinks that this must be what it's like to break a dog.

~::~

Dean hadn't lost all his fight.

The emotion that brings up in Sam confuses him. It's like… joy or something. He doesn't know why he feels it and he's a little ashamed when Lucifer catches up on it. He should have been sad that Dean just reverted back to his bad ways. He should be good for Michael.

Lucifer tells him this the entire time Sam has him down his throat, on his tongue, making him orgasm the way he likes best.

"Dean has to be good for Michael or else he'll never be loved as much as you are, Sammy." And Lucifer brushes his hand through his longish hair. He throws his head back and groans, the hand suddenly becomes vice-like, and Sam's pleased that his gag reflex doesn't react when the archangel takes only enough mercy on his throat to not stab a hole in the back of it with his inhuman strength. "Michael will give him a respectable collar when he learns to obey. Like yours. Don't you want that for your big brother?"

He does.

But a part of him doesn't.

He has never felt so torn before, so he cries and then chokes when Lucifer climaxes in his mouth.

When Lucifer leaves on business later, Sam curls up in the middle of their bed and plays with his collar. He feels each jewel and silver chain, the soft yet un-giving metal that band around his neck.

Dean would be happy if he could have a collar like Sam's. He just knows it. So why does he keep fighting?

Why does Sam want him to keep fighting?

But he isn't supposed to ask "why", so he doesn't.

~::~

Michael brings in another archangel. This one's supposed to be a pagan god too. A trickster one at that. He likes to prank people and he's heavy on the "eye-for-an-eye" thing.

He's supposed to break Dean.

Sam thinks he's happy about it until he sees Dean some days later. He looks like he was murdered a hundred times, brought back to life a hundred times, and then killed again just so he could walk around like the living dead. He looks at Sam with sunken green eyes and demurely takes a seat on the couch beside him.

There's two feet between them, so there's no chance of them touching.

Sam stares at the polished floor. He doesn't understand why he's crying. He just is. There's this pain in his heart that he can't figure out and it only hurts worse when he looks up at Dean. He _wants_ his big brother to smear his blood on the walls, get angry and curse – be _mean_ to the mansion and Michael and Lucifer. He wants his stupid, defiant big brother back.

He looks at the collar his big brother is wearing. The spikes have been replaced with diamonds and rubies. On Sam, Lucifer says they look beautiful. On Dean, it looks ridiculous.

Dean doesn't seem to care, though. Sam cries harder.

He knows Lucifer will punish him later on. Maybe he'll take away his collar and make him wear one like Dean's, or maybe he'll do _that thing_ again, but he can't stop himself.

He throws his arms around his big brother and begs. _Begs_, and that's something he's not allowed to do unless Lucifer wants him to. He begs for his big brother back. He wants Dean, not this person. Not this… this… this _pet_.

And Sam finally gets it. He finally gets why Dean looks so broken whenever he looks at Sam, like he's always looking for more of a fight. He's looking for his little brother, not Lucifer's pet, and now Sam's in his position, hoping he can see past Michael's possession.

The door opens almost as soon as Sam hugs his big brother. Michael and Lucifer are there, Lucifer at the front and he looks patient and kind and a little upset. Behind them is a third archangel – and Sam knows it's an archangel because they feel different from ordinary angels, like the housekeepers and the maids and the caretakers – who has golden hair and tawny eyes and he's really short.

Sam meets his gaze for a second. It isn't long. But Sam does it on purpose. He knows who that archangel is. He's the one who broke Dean.

He glares at the archangel. And he does something completely… _Dean_. "GO TO HELL, YOU FUCKER!"

Lucifer slaps him hard enough that he cracks his head against the wall. He doesn't remember flying off the couch across that five feet, but he feels his skull meet the alabaster. It's the last thing he knows.

The last thing he hears is his brother's cracked, scared voice calling his name.

~::~

Lucifer does _that thing_ to him again.

He chains Sam up in their bedroom, to a long vertical pole that disappears into the ceiling and floor. Sam has enough room that he can go to the bathroom to relieve himself and take a bath, because he's human and he has waste to get rid of and dirt he can't think away. But he can't get to anything else. The bed is too far, the door is too far, and Lucifer… Lucifer is always too far.

He only comes close enough once in the morning to order Sam to clean himself and get done with his "other end" business. When Sam's clean, inside and out, he doesn't prepare him for the angel-blade he stabs into his butt.

Sam feels the veins inside him break and his flesh rip. Everything burns and every slight movement is pure agony. Blood drips down his thighs and pools at his feet and makes the floor slippery. So that makes him move more and sometimes he falls. He screams a lot.

The only thing that stops him from dying is Lucifer.

At night, Lucifer comes back and takes the sword out. If Sam hasn't already peed by then – because it hurts too much to make it to the bathroom – he does so now. He takes a bath and Lucifer puts something in the water that makes Sam better.

Maybe that's the worst part. Sam never actually heals. Lucifer just makes him better. So he never really gets used to the torture. Every day, it feels newer than the last and the terror grows by night of the following morning. By the third day, he's begging Lucifer not to do it.

"But I must, Sammy, you forced my hand." He sounds on the edge of tears too. Lucifer looks down at Sam and there's so much going on there, like disappointment and sorrow and grief – but there's something evil and lusty in there too.

Sam stops arguing. Lucifer is absolute. Sam can't fight that.

The punishment goes on for two weeks. By the end of it, Sam remembers all over again why he's a good boy.

Lucifer heals him one last time and then unclips the chain. It falls to the floor and disappears while he leads Sam back to bed. They make love and every thrust reminds Sam of the knife being pushed into him, so he's tense the first time around. They go at it three times.

Sam curls up on the bed and Lucifer whispers how much he adores him into his ear. "I would never intentionally hurt you, Sammy. You've just got to know that I love you so much, I just want what's best for you. You won't get anywhere, yelling at other archangels like that, _letting_ other people touch you like they deserve to. Your brother has been a terrible influence on you, I'm sorry I didn't see it earlier. It's okay now, Sammy, I won't let him near you again. He will only drag you down, the way he's acting and making you act."

Sam understands. Lucifer's right, it is all Dean's fault! If Dean hadn't been there, Sam never would have acted so mean or out of character. He would have been a good boy. But Dean made him bad, made him do bad things. See? Lucifer hadn't even wanted to hurt him.

He just wants to do what is best for Sam.

He kisses Lucifer because he knows the archangel wants him to. Lucifer hums pleasantly. "You're right, Master. Thank you, Master. I love you, Master."

"I love you too, Sammy."

And he believes him.

~::~

Despite Lucifer's words, he still gets to see Dean the following week.

The collar of spikes is back. Dean has that defiant look again.

Sam hates himself but he feels happier all of a sudden seeing this.

"Sammy! Jeez, Sammy, are you okay?"

He glares at his big brother when he draws near. "Only Master is allowed to call me Sammy. Don't touch me, you're bad. You make me do bad things and think bad things and it's because of you that Master had to hurt me."

Dean draws back and looks like Sam just slapped him with one of the pillars in the corridor. "Sam…" The light dies in his eyes. "Right. Whatever. You're Luci's pet, got it."

"Don't call him _that_!" He's horrified at the very word. "Show him respect!"

"He took my fucking brother from me!" Dean spins on him, glaring down at him, and Sam honestly feels like he doesn't know this person because this person obviously doesn't know him. It's in his eyes, how they're hateful and distant and there's no love to be found. Well, _not-love_, because Lucifer said that Dean didn't love him, so it was never love.

But it had been something that had made Sam feel good, like he thought love should.

"And replaced him with _you_." Dean finishes, and it's worse than if he had ranted at Sam for hours without pause and had used every bad name in the book. He glares at Sam one last time and then marches over to the wall like an angel soldier, except there are waves of rage coming off of him and angel soldiers don't feel anything. That's what Lucifer tells him anyway. He begins beating the walls and it's not long till they run red with his blood.

Sam sits down on the only piece of furniture in the room, the couch, and cries into his knees. He doesn't know why.

~::~

"I don't know why Master keeps putting me in here with you. You're not good for me." Sam says haughtily the next time he sees his big brother.

Dean's trying to ignore him, so Sam tries to hurt him. Being ignored… Sam can't take it. Not his big brother. It hurts like it hurts when Lucifer does it.

His big brother snorts. "You really haven't figured it out yet? Jeez, kid –" Sam flinches, because Dean isn't even using his name anymore, "I thought you had _some_ brain cells."

He isn't sure where Dean gets all his knowledge. He knows words and meaning that Sam can't comprehend. It's like… it's like he knows how to _read_ or something. Like he's been taught one or twice. Sometimes, that makes Sam jealous. Other times, he remembers he has nothing to be jealous about.

Dean may know some things, but Sam's the happy one.

Sam shifts on his cushion. After a long, stubborn silence, he gives. "What do you mean?"

Dean glares at him. "_I_ actually listen when those two sick bastards fight about us seeing each other – and, guess what? _Luci_ isn't the one against it!"

"You're lying!"

"I'm _not_. Luci wants you to act up so he can break you all over again! He's waiting for the day you don't even acknowledge me anymore. He wants you all to himself and he can't have that if you're willing to love your own brother!"

"Don't call him that!"

Dean's grin is savage. "Call him what?"

"Luci!" He gasps and clasps his hands over his mouth. He's pale and shaking.

Lucifer hates that nickname. He hates it when Sam calls him anything but Master.

He'll do _that thing_ again if he finds out that Sam called him that.

"Why are you scared, Sammy?" Dean's in front of him now. His green eyes are shimmery and his walls are down. Sam sees all of the pain he has ever caused his big brother and he wants to die from just a fraction of it. "What does he _do_ to you? Please, Sammy, _please_!" Dean reaches out and pauses just an inch from him, just an inch from hugging him. "Please… let me back in, we can live through this if we have each other, _please_…"

He knows Dean is waiting for him to accept him. That the reason he pauses is to give Sam the choice.

He knows the second he crawls over the back of the couch just to escape touching him that he has lost his big brother. It's in the way he flinches and then just stares at the ground.

It's in how his eyes aren't even green after that, but murky and dull and almost like shit or mud.

"Don't call me Sammy," he whispers. "Only Master can call me Sammy."

~::~

He sees the archangel/pagan god talking to Lucifer from the bed.

They're talking but he doesn't know what of. At one point, Lucifer says his name and he scuttles off the soft mound of pillows and blankets to go to his side. He's wearing nothing.

Semen dribbles down his thigh and a little bit of blood too.

The archangel/pagan god looks away. "Gabriel, this is my good boy, Sammy. Sammy, say hello to my brother. He was the one who almost succeeded in conditioning Dean."

He thinks about what Dean had said about Lucifer the last time they had met. Then he doesn't think about it and does as he is told. "Hello, Gabriel."

"Now say you're sorry for the mean things you said to him."

"I'm sorry for the mean things I said to you, Gabriel."

"Good boy." Lucifer strokes his hair back. "Now go into the bedroom and pleasure him."

Sam whips his head around to look up at his master with wide eyes.

Lucifer never lets anyone touch him. He's a little shocked that that's changing now.

"Oh, I know, I know… but Gabriel is a good brother of mine and he's deserved himself some layback."

"Whoa there, Luci –"

Sam pales and stares at him in horror. Lucifer doesn't smite him and that only serves to shock him more.

"– as _wonderful_ as your offering is to sex up a scrawny little kid, I'm more into the tall and busty, you know what I mean?" He wiggles his eyebrows and Sam… Sam can't help it. He's never seen anyone do that with their eyebrows before.

He giggles.

Lucifer's hand twists in his hair and his giggle quickly turns into a whimper. He stares carefully at the floor.

"I don't make this offer lightly, brother. You shouldn't turn it down."

There's something dark and evil in the way Lucifer says that, even Sam can hear it. Has Gabriel done something wrong? The last time Sam heard that tone, someone died.

He stares at Gabriel's shiny black shoes and how still they are. "… Well, when you put it that way!"

Lucifer chuckles and pushes Sam towards the bedroom. Gabriel follows after him.

The archangel goes to shut the door but Lucifer tells him not to. "I want to watch." He grins softly and there's suddenly a whole garrison of angels behind him. "So do they. Everyone under your command wants to watch you defile a human child that rightfully belongs to me."

Sam gets it now. Gabriel _is_ going to die, but not in the way he had thought earlier. It's like social death, right?

Except, Lucifer has been making love to him for years. Why would it be bad for Gabriel to do so too?

Gabriel's eyes are hard as he sheds his clothes and Sam sits on the bed, waiting.

Gabriel is much gentler than Lucifer. But his eyes are closed and his face looks strange, like he's unwilling. Sam feels every thrust, every shift and touch like Gabriel's touching a part of him that Lucifer never could.

He doesn't understand it. He tries not to be responsive, because he thinks Lucifer wouldn't like that, but he can't stop the moans or cries or whines or whimpers.

It isn't until a searing hot Holy tear slides down Gabriel's cheek that he tries with everything in him to stop. He understands, Gabriel _doesn't_ want to be where he is. There's something about age that's stopping him, something about Sam being so small that's getting to him, and though Sam doesn't understand _that_, he understands the pain in the archangel's eyes when he finally does open them, when it's done and his orgasm is warm inside of Sam and his climax is cooling on their bellies.

It's like the pain in Dean's eyes. Like they've both lost something they never wanted to give up.

Sam can't stop himself. He looks too broken to be any sort of trickster, so he can't let him leave like this.

All the angels and Lucifer watch as he kisses Gabriel's cheek softly. "I'm sorry…" He cups his jaw in both small hands and presses more kisses to each trembling eyelid and his forehead. "I'm sorry!"

The angels disappear in a rush of murmurs and wings. Lucifer tells Gabriel to get off the bed in a low, dangerous voice that Sam recognizes.

He sobs and begs before he can stop himself. "No, no, no! Please, Master!"

Lucifer shakes his head and he looks sadder than Sam does, so this must hurt him more. "I didn't ask you to comfort him, Sammy, you took it a step too far."

Something is holding Gabriel still. Sam can't see it, but he can feel it, can feel the tang of Lucifer's energy in the air, and Gabriel just looks uncomfortable and angry standing there in the middle of the room, all muscles tense and shaking like he wants to move so badly.

"Please, please, _please_, Master…"

"You deserve this, Sam. You have to be a good boy, don't you understand? You have to be _my_ good boy." The chain comes on and the angel-blade comes out.

Sam screams and Gabriel watches in horror.

Lucifer smiles and Sam sees it.

Dean's words come to echo in his mind.

Doubt begins to form a small bubble in the corner of his mind.

~::~

Lucifer doesn't let Gabriel leave during Sam's punishment. He even thinks that his master doesn't let him blink or look away, because he never does.

He watches the rage and horror and hatred build in the archangel/pagan god and tries to tear the angel-blade out of him. He feels _aware_ of how shameful his punishment is all of a sudden, instead of just painful. Lucifer is the only one who has ever witnessed this, so it's different to see someone react like Gabriel is.

The angel-blade won't move. Then again, had it been capable of slipping out of him, the slide of blood would have already loosened it. His younger days when his frantic, bleeding hands had tugged at it would have loosened it. Nothing makes the blade move an inch. He swears it even moves further into him, until he feels it puncture something and he coughs up blood.

Gabriel releases a ragged sigh and there is pain to match Sam's in his eyes. "Sammy…"

He opens his mouth - and coughs up more blood. "S-Sam… n-n-not…" It hurts so much. He slips over the wet tiles and his left leg loses all sensation on contact with the ground.

His leg first turns white than blue and then the blood circulation stops altogether. The blood is so thick around him, it's black.

He can't pass out because Lucifer won't let him. So he watches the blood spill into the seams of the tiles and stain the floor within twelve feet of him red.

Gabriel is breathing hard through his nose. Archangels don't even need to breathe. Is it a pagan god thing? Sam doesn't know.

"Sammy? Sammy, look at me."

He does so, so tired and hurt he doesn't even try to tell him to stop calling him that.

Gabriel smiles and he knows it's forced. "Lemme tell you about the old days, huh? _Really_ old days, back when angels were older than all gods, how 'bout that?"

He's never been one for history. Lucifer never tells him anything and he never gives Dean the chance. Yet he finds himself captivated as Gabriel goes into detail about nature outside of this mansion.

Trees and mountains and snow and summer and fall ("no, Sammy, not like _falling_, like autumn!"). He tells him all about microorganisms and dinosaurs, how they are the angels' first living creations. Animals that Sam can't even imagine, like horses and elephants and sharks and camels and this mammal that lays eggs – a _platypus_. It's all exciting and Sam can ignore the pain as long as Gabriel keeps talking.

"Ever heard of a whale? Of course not, you've never heard of anything here – whales are these mammals that live in salt water."

Sam gaps. How is that possible? Isn't a mammal… well, him? He can't live in salt water. Or, at least, he has never lived in salt water. He'll have to ask Dean later, maybe he knows.

No… no, that wouldn't work. Dean would know about these animals, he's sure of it. He knows everything Sam doesn't. Why wouldn't he tell Sam about these amazing creatures?

Because he isn't allowed to. Sam flinches at the very thought of it. He doesn't want to believe it, doesn't want to think that Lucifer wouldn't want him to be curious – but that's the only thing he can think of right now.

Until Gabriel continues with his description, anyway. "And they're _huge_, Sammy. The baleen whales – they don't even have teeth. That's why they're called baleen whales, they have baleen instead. Baleen is this whalebone they have instead of teeth, like an elastic horny substance that forms narrow plates along the upper jaw. They're the biggest things in the world, the blue whale especially, and guess what's the funny part?"

He just stares. He's enthralled by everything Gabriel says.

"They eat these _tiny_ little organisms, like small fish and krill and plankton. Things no bigger than the palm of your hand."

Sam can't imagine it, living off of something so small.

"And these baleen whales – these "giants of the deep" – are over fifty feet long on average. Can you _see _that? Bigger than this room, than that damn hallway! And they weigh tons, Sammy, like trying to pick up this entire mansion."

No way.

Gabriel must be able to read his thoughts because his grin is slightly less bitter as he waggles his eyebrows and Sam giggles, despite how much pain it brings him. "Yes way."

~::~

Lucifer comes later that night. He goes through the process of healing Sam and cleaning him up. Eyes always on Gabriel, he touches Sam like he always does, intimately.

Sam pales and focuses on the chain link disappearing into the depths of the water, the shackle still on. He feels… like he always does. Good. But it _doesn't_ feel like it always does.

It doesn't feel _as_ good. He stares at the chain and doesn't dare look up because he knows his resentment will show. Lucifer has all of this knowledge, known about all of these things, but he has never told Sam. He has left him in the dark, told him that there is nothing better to be found, but there _is_. There is so much more.

Lucifer's fingers slip inside of him, thrusting into his mended passage. His organs are healed too and Lucifer kisses the blood off his face and out of his mouth.

Gabriel watches silently, eyes like golden fires, and he stares at Lucifer as if looks could kill.

"What do you think, Gabriel? Do you think you can keep your taint away from my boy? On top of his brother, he doesn't need _you_ twisting his mind. He was almost perfect till you came."

His words weave through Sam's mind and his voice is so beautiful, so low and heartbroken, like he is just so tired of fighting for Sam's innocence…

But his face is all wrong. Sam sees that now, comparing it to Gabriel's fury and his glare and his trembling body – and it's all so _alive_ even though he's an archangel on top of being a pagan god. Lucifer, who has always seemed kind and unbearably sensitive to Sam, now looks fake and cruel. His frown is curled up at the tips and his glistening eyes aren't wet, but sparkling joyfully. Gabriel looks like a storm just barely being held at bay, everything thrumming and eyes burning and hands clenched tightly at his sides. Lucifer looks like snow. Not even falling snow, but just snow that's already on the ground, that will never melt. Cold. Unforgiving. Colorless.

Sam listens to Lucifer's smooth-as-silk voice as he speaks to Gabriel. "Why are you so enraged, Gabriel? You could have walked away at any time. I wasn't forcing your hand in the matter… or any other appendage of yours." He looks pained but the frown is twisting further up and Sam smells a lie for the first time.

"M-Master…?"

Lucifer looks down at him and Sam is careful to look demure and pretty, like how Lucifer likes him. Gabriel looks at him too and the rage has transformed into pain again. "Do you love me?" he asks softly, nearly under his breath.

The archangel smiles and pets Sam's hair out of his face. "Yes, Sammy, I do. I'm sorry I have to do this to you. One day, though, you'll look back and thank me. I do this because I love you."

Sam doesn't know how to hide the tears. It actually makes him glad when Lucifer redirects his attention to Gabriel and keeps goading him, still touching Sam, because Gabriel doesn't say a word about Sam's tears and Lucifer is keeping all of his attention on the other archangel. He expects Sam to be a good boy, to be nice and loyal.

He doesn't expect him to be smart.

He is lying.

About loving Sam, about doing this for his own good. It is in his cold expression, how his eyes are cold and distant and his voice doesn't tremble once unlike Gabriel's.

Lucifer makes Sam orgasm and then orders him to return the favor. Lucifer cums deep in his throat, settling in his belly like ice.

It's the first time Sam ever wishes that he could just disappear and never see his Master again.

~::~

Gabriel disappears the moment Lucifer releases him.

Sam hasn't seen him since.

But he has seen his brother, and he has sat down next to Dean, who wears that damn collar of gems again, and speaks to him. Not _at_ him, doesn't tell him what to do, he… talks to him.

He wants to know.

"Have you ever seen a horse?"

Dean jerks and, for a moment, Sam thinks he has his big brother back. Then he settles back down and stares at the opposite wall, waiting loyally for his master to come back.

Sam swallows thickly and scoots a little closer. "Have you ever seen a camel? Do they really have humps on their backs?" He takes a deep breath and puts his mouth to Dean's ear. "Why do they spit on people?"

There is complete and utter silence for far too long.

Then Dean turns to him with wide, teary eyes. "Sammy… did you just ask me… _why_?"

"… Y-yeah… I think I did."

Dean shudders and his eyes slide close. "Sammy…!"

They cry but keep their distance. They don't want to be separated again.

"W-why, Dean? Why do they spit on people?" he presses around his sobbing hiccups.

"'Cause they're angry that they're funky-looking bastards, Sammy," Dean answers with a wet chuckle. "Look like Zachariah on all fours with his belly up."

Sam gaps at him. "Really?"

"Ugly sons of bitches."

Sam can't believe Dean is laughing. No one laughs at the archangels.

Then he smiles. Well, no one but his brother.

"What about dinosaurs, Dean? Why did dinosaurs go instinct?"

"_Extinct_, Sammy. Not instinct."

"_Why_?"

"'Cause Chuck Norris came along."

"Who's he?"

"He played this Texas Ranger on TV, mom loved him to d-…" The laughter dies there.

Sam stares at Dean's face and shifts the slightest inch closer. "Dean?"

"Yeah, Sammy?"

"What were they like?" Their parents, he means.

Dean knows without asking. "They… they loved us so much, with everything they had." Their voices drop to barely more than whispers and they're closer now than ever without touching.

Dean tells him all he can remember. It isn't much, he was taken away at four years old with Sam, but it's more than Sam knows and that's all that counts. He describes their house and their grandparents and the music that was always playing. He tells him about John and Mary Winchester, who were so in love and so happy together.

He tells Sam about the first time he held him, the first time he called him his little brother, and the first time Sam threw up on him.

They both laugh.

Dean, for the first time in years, looks truly happy.

~::~

Sam never really questions how Dean knows things. He thought about it a few times, but he never honestly thought it weird or unusual or anything like that.

Dean was four when he had been taken out of society. For all Sam knew, all four year old kids knew everything. Maybe they knew everything by the time they were _one_. Sam wouldn't know, he had been six months old when he had been sold to Lucifer.

It isn't until Michael comes into his and Lucifer's room one night that he learns to think differently.

"Lucifer, I want to talk to you." Michael is at the door, watching the archangel thrust into Sam, who has his hands tied above his head and his calves secured to his thighs with barbed wire.

Lucifer seems to have caught onto the fact that Sam is changing and loving him less and less as he realizes what kind of being he is. Love making has turned into fucking and Sam doesn't like it. It hurts and Lucifer doesn't care.

"Busy, Michael," Lucifer drawls. He pinches Sam's nipple too hard and it bleeds. He licks it up.

Michael sits down on the bed and ignores the crying child as he talks to his brother. "I am beginning to think that someone is betraying me."

Lucifer bites down on Sam's collarbone. "Go on." His thrusts are getting more forceful. Sam bleeds.

"Dean… have you realized that he knows more than he should?"

"He keeps finding the secret passage ways… so what? He won't ever leave… without Sammy. Isn't that true?" He speaks to Sam and smiles softly, like he used to.

Sam doesn't answer. He turns his face away and sobs.

"No, not in that sense… More worldly."

Lucifer stops. Sam shudders a breath of relief. "… How do you mean?"

"I found him reading a Harry Potter book the other day. He tried to hide it and led me straight to his hidden stash instead. Do you know what I found? Fast food, books, magazines, antique weapons…"

"Oh… this is interesting." Lucifer rolls off of Sam as if he isn't still hard and Sam isn't still tied down. "But who could betray you without your knowledge?"

Michael gives Lucifer a meaningful look. "There's only one person who's been around Dean regularly, except for him." By "him", he means Sam.

Lucifer looks almost mockingly upset. "You mean that soldier?"

"I should have known better than to assign such an angel to Dean."

"It isn't _your_ fault, brother. Dean's a difficult human and he has chased away every caretaker you have given him in your absence."

"Perhaps I should have done what you did and just raised him myself." Michael looks Sam over. "He looks docile enough."

Lucifer peers at Sam with much disappointment. "Not lately… lately, he's been fighting me." He makes it sound terrible, like Sam has no grounds for it and Lucifer is always in the right.

Sam is beginning to hate that tone.

Lucifer turns back to Michael. "What are you going to do, brother? Will you kill the soldier or punish Dean?"

"Having a disobedient slave is never good grounds for killing an excellent soldier. Many would turn against me if they knew that I had struck out as such – I'm not like you, they expect me to be mature. They expect me _not_ to force my enemies into bed with my pet."

"It worked, though, didn't it? Gabriel hasn't shown his face around here since I was through with him. His followers have officially joined my forces and now I'm a few thousand more strong."

Sam seals his eyes tightly shut. It hurts to hear about Gabriel, who he hasn't seen since _that thing_ was over with. It hurts more to know that he was the fall of that great archangel/pagan god. Even if he did torture Dean, and _why hadn't Dean told him_? Why had Dean kept these otherworldly things a secret from him?

He already knows the answer. He had never been trustworthy. He had been Lucifer's pet, not Dean's little brother.

"Let's get rid of them both in one fell swoop…" Michael looks suspiciously back at Sam before standing up. He drags his fingertips over Lucifer's shoulder, across his chest, and down to wrap around his throbbing length. "Let's discuss it while I remind you who knows you best."

Lucifer smirks. It's the first time Sam has ever seen that expression. "Of course, brother."

No one has ever told Sam about incest. No one has ever told him it is wrong. He watches Lucifer walk off with his dick still in Michael's hand and the only thing he can think about is how much his body hurts.

He doesn't call out, though.

He doesn't want them to come back.

~::~

When he wakes up (when did he fall asleep?), his binds are undone and he feels comfortable. He feels warm and protected and just a little bit loved. There is an arm wrapped around his waist, hand on his hip, and beneath his cheek isn't the expensive materials that Lucifer usually wears, it's coarser and smells a little… _wilder_.

Something fans his cheeks, he hears the woosh of ruffling feathers, and then the heavy, soft weight of a wing settles over his naked body.

Sam opens his eyes and… no one is there. The bed is empty and the spot next to him is cold. There isn't an arm around him and the imprint of the wing is gone.

That isn't fair… it isn't fair at all! It had been so beautiful and he had felt so at peace… he furrows his eyebrows at his lower body.

There's a handprint on his hip, right where he had felt the hand resting. It looks like it's burned into his skin, but it isn't painful and it actually feels pretty good when Sam slides his own hand over it. A wave of warmth and pleasure sizzles through his veins.

A single name goes through his mind.

_Gabriel_.

He smiles and holds his hip. Lucifer is going to notice it. For everything he has ever done to Sam, he has never scarred him. He has always told Sam that scars are ugly and take away from one's beauty.

Sam doesn't feel ugly. He feels desired and needed with every rush of emotions that come over him.

_This_, he thinks to himself, is love. And Dean's love is love.

And he finally gets it.

~::~

Lucifer doesn't return till later. He sees Sam unbound and punishes the child for it. Apparently, he hadn't come in the night to let Sam free of his binds.

Sam hadn't thought so.

The archangel takes away Sam's beautiful collar and replaces it with a spiky one. Now Sam sees that it isn't the shame of the collar he should have been worried about. The spikes go both ways.

He doesn't dare try to move the collar around to make it more comfortable. The needle-like points sink into his throat and they all just fall short of poking something important. The thorns on the outside catch at his hands every time he tries to unclasp the collar and tears into his fingers and palms.

Lucifer smiles when he's done putting it on Sam and pets his hair. "You will learn again, Sam. Just know that I do this for your own good, and because I love you."

Sam doesn't believe him.

He's just happy that Lucifer doesn't seem to notice the handprint on his hip, anyhow.

Maybe he's the only one who can see it.

~::~

They descend into the council room. It's a huge chamber that fits over a thousand angels and archangels alike, and the only way Sam knows how to describe it is as a coliseum, because that's what Dean called it the last time they were here, three years ago to watch a traitor angel have his wings ripped off by his peers.

Now that Sam thinks about it, he wonders how his brother even knew that word. "Coliseum". No one else calls the council room that, they just call it the "council room". The "room of judgment", the "righteous room". They have a few names for it, but never a "coliseum".

On stage, bound with Enochian chains, is an angel with black messy hair and intense blue eyes. He isn't wearing the traditional white robes, but a long, dirty brown coat (Sam thinks it's a trench coat, he swears he heard Dean talking about one once) and the rest looks like a suit. It's black and white and Sam remembers Gabriel telling him about penguins.

Except this guy isn't what he thought of when he imagined a penguin. He looks more dangerous than the fluffy fish-like bird Sam expected. There's this narrowed-eyes look he has as he studies his brothers and sisters that says he doesn't care for them.

But he's looking for something – or someone. Even Sam can tell. When his eyes settle and a thread of warmth enters his gaze, Sam knows he found his target. That looks like love too, how his face just goes soft and he's _almost_ smiling, but not quite. His blue eyes glitter.

Sam follows his gaze and sees Dean on the other end of that stare, pale and shouting out his denial among the uproar of the excited angels. Michael has him by his collar, holding him back, but Dean actually wants to _save_ this angel.

Sam can see it. Anyone who looks at Dean could see it.

Is this the angel that gave Dean a piece of the outside world? Is this the guy who fed Dean's rebellion over the years? The old Sam, the one that had been him not even two weeks ago, would have been happy to see this angel gone. That isn't Sam now, though.

Now Sam wants to save the unknown angel, no matter the cost. But he's a child and a slave at that, and there's nothing he can do. He tries to shout with Dean, at least, but Lucifer's hand comes down on his collar and tugs. The spikes puncture his throat and he wheezes on blood for a second before Lucifer heals him.

It's a warning of what's to come if Sam doesn't behave. For the first time in he doesn't even know how long, he doesn't care.

"LET THE ANGEL GO!" He screams anyway.

Lucifer's hand comes back and the spikes strike him just right that something rips and his voice disappears into breathy rasps and choking coughs of blood. Lucifer lets him bleed this time and doesn't heal it.

The pain is too great for Sam to try and speak.

It only gets more interesting from there.

Zachariah appears next to the bound angel and he spits on the "traitor" before announcing that he has found the second culprit.

"This archangel and angel were found betraying _our_ secrets to demons! To the king of the crossroads! TO CROWLEY!" The enraged roar that sweeps through the stadium is deafening. "They aimed to massacre us, ALL OF US. But our brothers, Michael and Lucifer, THEY SAVED US!"

Sam feels the dread build up and so does the bile. Michael and Lucifer, they had said…

Michael had said to get rid of them. This is getting rid of them and making him and Lucifer look great for it.

He already knows who the archangel is before Raphael and Uriel appear with a huge cage between them, made of the same material as the angel's chains and Dean and Sam's collars. Inside of it is Gabriel.

Their eyes meet for a second and Gabriel smiles. He winks.

Sam chokes on blood and a sob.

"Now let our brothers WROUGHT OUT THEIR PUNISHMENTS!"

Sam swears that the coliseum echoes with the screeches and cries of the angels, so much so that something warm and wet trickles down his earlobe. Blood. There is so much blood nowadays, _his_ blood.

But that isn't important, because he can't hear it. Not over his own heartbeat. Not as Lucifer leaves his side and shoves Gabriel out of his cage.

Not as he lifts his angel-blade. The same angel-blade he uses on Sam.

Gabriel recognizes it. The fury is tangible.

Michael leaves Dean behind for a redheaded angel to hold back. He fights her but she's an angel, so she doesn't even recognize his struggles. Michael takes out his own angel-blade and slides it threateningly across Castiel's throat. The angel doesn't even flinch.

"Gabriel, archangel, brother," Lucifer murmurs, but the hush that descends makes his voice sound like a roar, "state what you are guilty of here before your siblings so that you may pass on peacefully."

The archangel/pagan god purses his lips and then smirks. "Well~ where do I begin. I left my garrison back in the time of the caveman, became a pagan god, killed hundreds in the name of vindication, ate a _lot_ of candy, did a _lot _of humans and creatures of the night alike, haven't held up my heavenly vows, and I may be the reason for Zachariah looking like Uncle Fester."

Sam doesn't get it. A thought buzzes into his head and he thinks of the _Addam's Family_ for some reason. Gabriel smirks.

Did they… did they just share a mental link?

Another thought buzzes into his head. _Yes_. They did.

Sam has to hide his shock.

"But that's not all! Y'see, I also got back in touch with my garrison after your sick game and they were angrier with you than me. And then I met this angel Balthazar and realized that you guys don't even have those "weapons of mass destruction" you've been threatening us with for the past three hundred years."

What's this about? What weapons? Sam has never head of these weapons.

"You say _we_ were dealing with demons, but I've figured out how you got your "pets", as you seem to like to call them. Azazel, really? Not cool, man. Not cool."

Lucifer is getting antsy and they can all see that. He slices his blade down –

And Gabriel isn't there. The manifestation of himself that had been in the chains disappears in a blue haze. Zachariah, Uriel, Raphael, Michael, and Lucifer look shocked.

The angel in the trench coat stands up from where he has been crouching this entire time and the chains fall off like water. "You have ruled over us for far too long, brothers. You have become drunk off power and have lost the meaning of family." His voice is deep and gravelly. "Our siblings have gathered here today, not to see our fall, but yours."

Dean looks both overjoyed and shocked from where he is. Sam shares the feeling.

Gabriel reappears behind Lucifer. "We knew you found out about Dean, and we knew you'd act on it. We let you guys plan this entire thing… and only added two little tweaks to it."

"These chains have an extra symbol scratched into them against the skin, instead of externally, so that none of you could see it. This allowed us to free ourselves at any time." The trench coat-wearing angel says.

Gabriel smirks at the angel and the angel looks somberly back at him.

"And no one here supports any of you." He snaps his fingers and, suddenly, there's war in the stadium. Hundreds of angels are flying forth, attacking the twisted archangels, and there's no end to the flow of bodies.

Sam actually thinks they'll win. There are so many of them, how could they fail?

They start dropping fast and hard, creating fleshy mounds. Uriel has fallen, but the others have formed a tight circle, protecting themselves from the onslaught.

Zachariah sees Sam and the look of vicious hatred makes Sam try to call out, but he can't. Not with blood in his mouth.

One minute, he and Dean are still in the stands, watching in dumbstruck awe.

In the next, Lucifer has Sam by the throat and Michael's blade is against Dean's. Zachariah is between them and Raphael is to their close right.

Sam sees Gabriel's eyes widen and a sense of fear shoots through Sam.

Dean curses and bites and struggles, but it's all useless.

"Things are good the way we have it!" Zachariah cries out. "You kill us now, guess where these humans will be ten years from now? In Hell!" He does some weird motion in the air. His blood spatters against the floor in a pattern that can't be natural.

From one moment to the next, nothing really changes. There're no other humans there but Sam and Dean and then, suddenly, there are two more and they're older than the brothers. They… look like the brothers.

They are the brothers.

Sam looks at himself, at this man he will become. He's _huge_, and he still has floppy hair, though it's darker, and his eyes are still switching from green to brown to blue. He still has a baby face, though it's more angular now, and he's really, _really_ big, and Sam can't get over that because he's so small right now.

He's not wearing a collar. He's wearing jeans and boots and an unbuttoned sweater over a shirt. None of it is white.

Next to him is Dean. Older Dean. And he has a rough chin and a pointed jaw. He's taller and sharper-looking, and his green eyes are mean and tough and maybe a bit too all-seeing for Sam's liking. He's wearing boots, jeans, and a leather jacket over a shirt. There's a necklace hanging from his neck that Sam can't quite tell what it is. None of that is white either. And he's not wearing a collar. There aren't even scars to prove that he ever has.

These men… they're not slaves. They're free, and Sam can see that.

Apparently, their older versions can also see that they're not where they were a second ago.

Older Sam looks cautiously around and Sam is just… entranced by how big he is and how muscles shift as he moves. Sam doesn't have any muscles, he's scrawny and short and Lucifer likes him that way. "Uh… Dean?" older Sam says slowly.

Older Dean purses his lips and looks around the room. "Yeah, Sam, I know."

Older Sam turns towards them and they both know exactly who they're looking at. Sam and older Sam study each other with wide eyes. "… Dean, do you remember this?"

"Yep." Dean has cold, hateful eyes pinned on Michael. "I remember every second of it." He offers a cruel smile to Zachariah. "You really fucked up this time, Zach! You should have just kept us where we were."

Older Sam and Sam still stare at each other.

He doesn't know what to think of this person who is him and yet a completely other person. This Sam looks independent and touchable. Dean proves it by reaching over and slapping older Sam on the back. "We're going to rock your world," Dean sneers, and he's looking at all four of the archangels.

Older Sam looks up and there's… there's _hatred_ in his eyes. It's hot and not hidden and it's directed at Lucifer.

The blade at Sam's neck slices his skin just slightly. "Zachariah, send them back." Is that a note of panic in his voice? Why would he feel panicked? Even if they are older, they're still human, and if dozens of angels couldn't kill them, then why would they be able too?

Sam doesn't understand it, but Lucifer quickly masks over his fear in the way he always does. By insult. "I think it's obvious that we should kill these boys now, before they grow up to be _hunters_. Look at them, all of you!"

Everyone does and older Dean and older Sam press their backs together, looking weary, a little scared, and older Dean looking pissed. Older Sam just keeps looking around, like he's searching for something, and then he stops and relaxes.

He's looking at Gabriel. He even offers a small, happy smile that's quickly wiped off his face by Lucifer's words.

"They're dirty, scarred mortals. And the rebellion in their eyes, _do you see it_? In our care, look at how these boys are."

And then everyone is looking at him and Dean. He shrivels beneath their eyes.

Dean puffs up. "JUST KILL THEM! Sweet Jesus, what the _hell_ are you waiting for? _They're_ the bad guys, _do_ something about it!" He struggles against Michael, staring at his older self.

His body suddenly jerks and then he's still. His neck hangs at an awkward angle and Michael still has a hand raised, like he doesn't care who notices what he just caused.

It takes a little while for Sam to realize that he's dead. He's never seen a dead person before, he's only been told of them and seen them dying, but never dead.

By the time he realizes it, though, the silence is so powerful that he can't overcome it.

Older Dean is still standing in the middle of the stadium, older Sam at his side. Neither look surprised that Dean is dead, but older Sam looks away, as if he can't take the sight.

Older Dean grunts. "What? You done throwing your tantrum yet, Mikey? 'Cause I'm done watching!"

Sam has never seen a gun before. But, guessing from his brother's description of one, he would say that is what older Dean takes out of his jacket and points at Michael's head. It looks like it's made of the same stuff as Sam's collar and Sam's pretty sure it's meant for angels.

Dean drops to the ground as older Dean fires. Michael is suddenly missing. But only for a second.

A band of angels have the stadium circled and the moment Michael tries to get out (Sam can't see him, but the angels can), he's shoved back in. They may not be able to kill him, but they seem to be able to hold him.

"Lucifer!" Michael screams. "Kill the child!"

Sam squeezes his eyes shut and waits.

"GABE! Help!" That's older Sam. Who is he calling Gabe?

Lucifer's hold on him breaks and the blade is gone. There are bird-like screeches and a hand grazes his hip for a moment, almost comfortingly. When he opens his eyes, Gabriel and Lucifer are fighting just feet away from him.

Gabriel… Gabe? What?

A hand circles his upper arm and pulls. Older Sam proceeds to pull Sam's dead brother over his shoulder and launches off with Sam just dangling from his grasp, unable to keep up because older Sam's legs are probably longer than his entire body and he has a pace to match.

Raphael is closing in on them, racing after them with cold murder in his eyes, and his hands are reaching out towards them – it's horrifying and exciting because Sam has never _run_ before. At least never like this.

Older Dean is after Michael, leaping through the stands with gun aimed, waiting. Michael flies enraged throughout the coliseum, shrieking and killing his brothers and sisters.

Older Dean snarls and looks back at them. Then he looks to someone else. "Cas! Help me with this sonofabitch!"

_Cas_? Who's Cas?

Cas is the angel in the trench coat, apparently. He's the one who answers Dean's call, anyway. And he leaps into the air and – he has really beautiful wings. He really does.

And he screams breathily when he sees Michael rip one off, but that gives Older Dean all the time he needs.

A "bullet", that is what Dean had called it. It strikes Michael right between the eyes. He descends to the ground with Cas still in his hands and, as he does, a blue light filters through his eyes and mouth. It glows brighter and brighter and brighter until it's beneath his skin and in every hair strand and he's all but blue himself – and then they crash onto the stage and the light disappears like it had never been.

Michael lies in its place, looking so peaceful like he's sleeping. Except angels don't sleep, so Sam assumes he's dead.

Older Dean goes down and he with a few other angels help Cas up.

Sam doesn't see what happens next because they topple over, an enraged Raphael on top of them. Zachariah is off in a corner, garrisons of angels descending on him, and Lucifer howls with pure fury and pain from where he battles with Gabriel. Gabe. Whatever Sam is supposed to be calling him.

Raphael holds older Sam down by his throat. "I knew from the moment I laid eyes on you that the day would come when you would need to die." Except his blade doesn't go towards older Sam.

It goes for Sam. The thing Raphael didn't seem to count on, however, is older Sam having a weapon just like older Dean. That, or he's just being stupid.

Older Sam's angel-blade enters through his ribs and the blue lights come back.

Older Sam coughs and pushes the body off of him, turning to him. "Shit, are you okay? Uh, me, are you okay?"

He nods slowly. He coughs up blood and then nods again. He isn't sure what else to do.

His throat is torn, his brother is dead, and there's a war going on with the people who will be him and Dean fighting it. Lucifer is about to die, if the rage in Gabriel's eyes says anything, and Lucifer is all Sam has ever known. So… he's about to lose everything. Maybe? But older Sam doesn't look lost, he looks strong and… and _kind_.

Sam doesn't get it. But he thinks maybe he will, because older Sam doesn't seem to even think about it.

There's another echoing scream of pain and rage and death and then –

Sam stares because he isn't sure what else to do. Lucifer is limp on the ground, dead. Gone.

Despite everything, he starts to cry. It's not even out of joy, it's out of… out of _loss_. Lucifer is all he knows, now what does he know with him not there?

Older Sam rocks back and forth with him in his arms. "It's okay… It's okay. You'll live through this. It doesn't feel like it right now, but… look at me. At us." He smiles down at Sam. "We'll make it through this, I promise."

And Sam believes him. He wants to believe that he's an honest man when he grows up.

He wants to believe that he grows up at all.

~::~

Dean is lied down in a ring of angels. Forefront is Castiel (Sam hears his full name eventually), with one large water-blue wing clinging to his shoulder. Where the other wing had been steadily bleeds white.

At his side is older Dean, who has an arm wrapped around his waist and the other hand holding the angel's arm over his shoulders. Sam wonders if that's really the only thing keeping the angel standing.

Gabriel is there on Sam's one side while older Sam is at his other. The redhead, Anna, is on older Dean's free side, and a blonde, Balthazar, is tucked between her and Gabriel. Another woman completes the circle but Sam hasn't caught her name.

"I don't understand…" Castiel says. "Why are you still here, Dean?" he turns to older Dean. "If you died here and now…" He sways and nearly drops before Gabriel reaches out and helps hold him up.

Older Dean redirects to older Sam. "Yeah. If I died here and now, why do I still exist?" He gives a small, quirky grin. "You're the one who saw all this." He winks down at Sam.

The realization that he will be so important in the future – that he will know this day till he experiences it through an older gaze – floors him. But it all makes sense all of a sudden.

Neither of them is shocked for what's happening to them. Neither of them was worried when Dean died. They knew exactly who to ask for help.

Sam is awed.

Older Sam swallows. "This was when… This was when Cas knelt by your side and put his hand on your shoulder. I don't know why he did it, or why it happened… but when he pulled away, you were alive and he had his wing back." He blinks. "You had a bond."

Sam likes this so far.

Older Dean and Gabriel help Castiel forward. The angel drops heavily by Dean's side and he reaches shakily for his brother's left shoulder. He pulls the sleeve up and, slowly, tiredly, he presses his hand there, holding him, like he's lifting him from the Hell around them.

There is a long moment where nothing happens. It's so long, older Dean looks at older Sam uncertainly, who seems to be the only one sure of himself.

Then there is a sizzling sound. Around Castiel's hand, Dean's skin burns.

Sam gets antsy and tries to rush forward. Older Sam holds him back. "I know it looks bad now, but it will be better." They meet identical gazes. "Trust me."

There is a crack at the same moment a bright flash of pale light surrounds Castiel. When it fades away, Castiel's twin wings are intact and arching up and gorgeous. They're like water, green and blue and brown and flowing.

Dean groans and shifts slowly on the ground.

Older Dean goes limp with relief. "Thank _fuck_, I exist."

Castiel's wings come forward around Dean and – Sam doesn't see it, but he _feels_ it – he hugs him. It's like they're in their own little world, because neither seem to notice any of the hundreds of angels around them, cheering and screaming and whooping.

Gabriel claps both Sams on the back. "It's an angel miracle!"

~::~

Castiel and Gabriel send the older versions of them back to their own time.

Before they do so, however, older Sam takes Gabriel aside and whispers something into his ear. When he pulls back, he's smiling softly and Gabriel is wide-eyed for just a second before he relaxes. The archangel/pagan god wiggles his eyebrows and says something back.

Older Sam blushes.

Sam blinks. Has he ever blushed before? He brushes his fingers along his cheeks, actually hoping to feel the embarrassing heat. Nothing.

Dean and older Dean are having a few choice words. Judging by how they keep looking back at him and older Sam, it's about how to take care of their little brothers.

And then they're gone, like they've never been. But they will be.

Dean wraps an arm around Sam's shoulders. "We're free."

It's all he says, but it alone says so much. It's scary and exciting and everything and nothing all at once.

Gabriel ruffles Sam's hair. Castiel takes up Dean's other side. "Hey, kiddo, lemme show you the world…"

_Author's Note: This is not part of my Halloween 'Verse. _


End file.
